What’s Peace Corps without the training?
This past week — and my next few weeks/ weekends — have been and will be full of Peace Corps training. This past week was In-Service Training (IST), next week I have a safety training and then shortly after that, I’ll have Project Design and Management.
It’s a lot, but it’s to be expected. IST is kind of a new-ish concept, apparently. Our Pre-Service Training used to be longer, but Peace Corps recently decided to cut it short and then add a new In-Service Training session a little bit into our service.
That way, we could do some training with our counterparts after we’d gotten a little bit acclimated to our sites and all.
So, all the education volunteers (and our counterparts!) recently traveled to Konche Zaspa for a few days of training, starting on Monday.
The trip started off kind of cool… I got to take my first ride on an overnight Ukrainian sleeper train car!
Oksana and I boarded our train at 3 a.m. and then settled into our bunks. I was really nervous about taking a sleeper train, so it was nice to have Oksana there so she could walk me through the process of setting up my linens and explain how train courtesy worked, since many passengers will sit on the lower beds during the day and then move to the bunks at night.
We got into Kyiv and then made our way to our training hotel, which wasn’t too far away.
We got our itineraries for the week, which included joint sessions, independent sessions, games and lots of breaks.
Rest is really important in Ukrainian culture, so the difference between American-only training and American-and-Ukrainian training is very stark. Trainings that include Ukrainian citizens have lengthy 45-minute breaks with coffee, tea and pastries every 90 minutes or so. American-only trainings run long, include hours-long sessions and feature a short lunch and one or two short 15-minute breaks.
And, health is very important to Ukrainian culture. Given that I was sick with a really bad cold when I arrived, I was promptly thoroughly inspected by the Peace Corps Medical Officer, given a bottle of off-brand DayQuil and sent to my room to rest.
So, my first night was pretty uneventful. I missed the first day of sessions and language, slept the entire afternoon and then joined some volunteers later that night for a low-key round of Mafia.
I felt MUCH better on day two.
I was able to make it to pretty much all of the sessions on day two… including language.
It’s not a Peace Corps training unless there’s a language refresher!
So, I’ll keep talking about “sessions.” They’re probably exactly what you expect. Peace Corps splits the volunteers and counterparts up for a few of the sessions, like language and culture.
Other sessions are conducted with PCVs and counterparts together. These sessions are the ones that are a little more technical. Because this IST was focused on the TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) volunteers, all of our sessions were focused on teaching English.
For example, we had a session about how to provide differentiated instruction, and one on how to make and use grading rubrics. We had one on teaching civic education, one on how to make in-class reading more fun and one on how to host community English clubs. We spend a session focusing on how to use QR codes (QR codes are a dead technology in the U.S., but Ukrainians LOVE them) in learning, and spent another session learning how to host teacher training workshops.
Some of the sessions were a lot more useful than others. Some were a good recap and some gave me (and Oksana) some completely new material to take with us to our classrooms.
Above all, some of the sessions highlighted the differences between American and Ukrainian culture, like one where we had to categorize masculine and feminine traits.
Unsurprisingly, the Ukrainians had way stricter definitions of what men and women should do and act like vs. the Americans.
While all the formal sessions were really interesting, I can’t lie.
The best part of IST — of AN. Peace Corps training, really, is getting a chance to spend time with other PCVs.
Me and several of my good friends all went out (on a school night nevertheless!) to a bar called Doberbar in Obukhiv.
We all got stayed out late. Way too late. And got drunk. Way too drunk. Yes, the next day was brutal.
But it was worth it.
Aside from our bar night, we also had a lot of fun off-the-clock at the conference hotel.
We had a Peace Corps-sanctioned talent show one night, where a lot of the Ukrainian counterparts showed off their traditional and modern dance moves.
My friend Mark also performed a slow poetry reading of the classic “Old Town Road,” by the great wordsmith Lil Nas X.
Also, someone found taco-flavored tortilla chips somewhere?! And they didn’t totally suck?!
Erin also clued me in to the existence of a cereal that tastes EXACTLY like Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I love sharing these little things with other PCVs.
And something else I love sharing?
…THE HARD DRIVES.
If you ever read any Peace Corps packing list, one of the highly, HIGHLY recommended items to pack is a 2TB external hard drive. Yes, it’s that specific.
Why? Boredom. PCVs — no matter the country — will have a lot of unstructured free time. They’ll usually have zero WiFi and poor (or expensive) cellphone service.
So, know what helps in that situation?
A 2TB external hard drive full of movies, TV shows, books and music.
Basically, from what I can tell, every single PCV get-together always involves a stack of hard drives that are swapped in and out so people can take and share pirated content from each other.
I posted the above photo to Instagram and had several friends serving as PCVs in other countries reply to laugh and say “yep, it’s universal.”
We also got a LOT of practice opening wine bottles without wine bottle openers.
And, that was it! We took our shuttles back into Kyiv and waited for our trains to take us back to our sites.
Rachel and I decided to kill our time getting ramen at Menya Musashi.
Overall, a really great time!
I know I have several more trainings on my agenda in the coming weeks, and I’m trying to remember the highs of IST when the thought of it all starts to get overwhelming.
Til next post! …Which is sure to be a training recap!
This post was originally published Jan. 25, 2022. Its timestamp has been updated to better reflect the timeline of my Peace Corps service.
